Stress can affect the physical and emotional well being of an individual. Emotional stress produces physical changes by stimulating the nervous system to respond. The body comes into a stressed state almost instantly when it detects any kind of threat, but the body must necessarily revert back to its normal state after a certain period of time. Reverting back to the normal state is not possible when the body is subjected to frequent or repetitive stress. Frequent or repetitive stress means that the amygdala and limbic systems are continuously overactive, so that the sympathetic nervous system keeps the body in a state of alert all the time, which does not allow the para-sympathetic nervous system to respond and bring the body to rest.
If the body is not reverted back to a normal restful state, the body systems that are suspended during the stress response cannot be resumed effectively. While the body is under this stressful state, the person can become anxious and depressed. In the depressive state, the brain is inundated with an unmanageable bombardment of negative thoughts. As the body continues to be in this heightened state, the linear progression from anxiety, to dysthymia, to depression and finally to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be experienced, as depicted in FIG. 1.
This progression, however, need not be linear. FIG. 2 depicts one scenario where a sudden trauma or catastrophic event is experienced by an individual (example, e.g., death of a family member, natural disasters; or trauma from wars, accidents, and homicides.
Other changes can produce similar effects, but where the increased stress is experienced more gradually rather than instantaneous. These additional “gradual increase” stress-inducing events include various job stresses, chronic traffic, a bad relationship or marriage, performance or examination anxieties, rescue missions, combat fighting, or chronic health problems of loved ones.
Many published prior works exist that discuss various ways to handle patients in heightened stress states. This same body of prior work has evolved to include such therapeutic tools such as counseling techniques, group therapy, and prescription medications. Only recently, a few research papers have highlighted the importance and benefits of nontraditional modalities to help individuals exhibiting severe anxiety or mental stress.
Treatment and monitoring of mental health patients, more specifically those with mood disorders like anxiety and depression, has a limited set of objective biometric measurement tools available compared to the general health practices. Use of biometric measurement tools as monitoring devices is described in several patents. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,540,841 describes a system that collects data on an individual's daily activity to determine their mental health. U.S. Pat. No. 7,894,849 describes a method of collecting data through multiple sensors. WO2012108935 describes a health management system using a mobile communication device to communicate biometric sensor data through a server. US 20130009993, US 20130011819, US 20130012790, US 201300113331 all disclose a methodology to provide real-time feedback of health information of an employee from a set of health sensors while the employee is engaged in their work duties.
As described herein, the present invention provides new systems and methods for measuring objective, autonomic physiological parameters that allow for monitoring of emotional states in ways that were not previously contemplated.